A Critical History Of The English Translation Of Chinese Confucian Classics In The20^th Century Of The United States Of America

Confucian classics, represented by Five Classics and Four Books, are the concentrationof Chinese nations’ core values and spiritual quality; thus, the English translation ofConfucian classics is not only good for popularizing Chinese culture, maintaining the nationaland cultural identity, and promoting our nation’s cultural soft power, but also can help todevelop the diversity of the world culture. As one part of the English translation of Chineseclassics which has not been developing into a mature discipline with theoretical system andunique blueprint, it is urgent for the English translation of Confucian classics to turn to itshistory, by comparing and contrasting the past and the present, locating and making up thedeficiencies, drawing lessons, and probing the rules, so as to move forward. The importanceof translation history is beyond doubts, but by careful reading through the works of translationhistory both in China and abroad, it is depressed that there is very few and rare materialreferring to the history of English translation of Chinese classics, including the Confucianclassics.It is known that the English translation of Chinese classics has witnessed its250years ofdevelopment. It is nonetheless a daunting task to make a thorough history, but the history canbe studied and analyzed country by country, period by period, topic by topic, by dividing itinto different steps, so as to concentrate on depicting the unique courses of culturaltransmission in different countries and periods. In the20thcentury, especially when it wasafter the Second World War, the United States of America had been developed into a worldpower of economy, politics and culture, which bestowed it much more power in globalcommunication. Moreover, the United States of America became the center of world sinology.So, it is benchmarking to study the history of the English translation of Confucian classics inthe20thcentury of the United States of America.This dissertation makes a careful and comprehensive examination of the translatingactivities in the20thcentury of the United States of America from the perspective of cultural communication between China and the west, including “What Classics have/have not beentranslated?”,“Who is translating and How?”,“What is the effect of translation?”, thusdrawing an outline of the history firstly. Secondly, it is to analyze the macroscopic factors oninfluencing the translating activities, including its historical and cultural context, the patronsand the development of Sinology, so as to answer the question of “Why the classics weretranslated?”, and “What influenced the translation?” Thirdly, this dissertation focuses on thetranslated texts and translators from which choosing the represented ones to discuss thedifferent translation paradigms and their functions in cultural transmission, on which thetranslators’ standpoint of cultural transmission and translation may have influence, so as toanswer the questions of “Why are these translators translating in different paradigms?”,“What is the function of each paradigm in the process of cultural transmission, and “Whichparadigm is the best choice?”. Based on the above description and analysis, this dissertationlastly will come to provide a systematic and critical history of the English translation ofChinese Confucian classics strategically for the reference of the Chinese culture’scommunicating with other cultures and constructing the diversity of world cultures.This dissertation is divided into six chapters.Chapter One is an introduction to show the significance, objects, theoretical basis,researching methods and the outline of this dissertation.Chapter Two is a comparing and contrasting study between the previous studies ontranslation history both in China and abroad, so as to discover the problems, based on whichto make a plan for the future studies on the English translation of Confucian classics.Chapter Three is to depict a thorough and systemic history of the English translation ofConfucian classics in four periods, including the translators, the translated texts, and thetranslating activities, so as to summarize the features of the history: it is witnessed twoclimaxes in1960s and1990s. The translation is involving a process from translating parts ofthe source text to all, from selective translation to complete translation, from the individualactivity to cooperation among translators from the east and the west, from the perspective ofreligion to philosophy. The translators’ professions and cultural identity are diversified, so do their translating methods and purposes. The Chinese-American translators and Americansinologists make a great contribution to the English translation of Confucian classics, butmost of the translators are too old to do the translation and many of them have passed away,so, it is urgent to cultivate and train new translators. Moreover, there are no specificorganizations and journals for the English translation of Confucian classics, and the experts ofwestern translation studies have not been involving in it, which is mainly attached to thesinology for development.Chapter Four is to analyze the macroscopic cultural factors influencing on the translatingactivities by applying the descriptive translation study which focuses on the target languageand its cultural context. It is discovered that the inner motivations of translating the Confucianclassics lie in the strong spirit of self-criticism, utilitarianism, individualism and innovation ofthe United States of America. In the meanwhile, the outer motivations come from the situationwhen American culture suffers from difficulties and frustrations. But on the whole, Americanculture is a strong power in world culture, and the cultural export and expansion is always thefirst and most important comparing to its cultural import. So, it is to explain that although theEnglish translation of Confucian classics does play a role in the development of Americanculture, it has not yet gained its position of being an individual discipline, but attached toSinology. Besides, American government and various foundations are either making policiesor giving financial support to the development of Sinology for its own purpose of state anddiplomatic strategy. That will make an indirect influence on the English translation ofConfucian classics. In fact, some translated texts of the Confucian classics have become onepart of the Sinologist research achievement as well.Chapter Five divides all the translated texts into two paradigms:“Source Text CenteredTranslations”(STCT) and “Source Text Relevant Translations”(STRT). STCT, represented byWing-tsit Chan’s A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy and Roger Ames’ The Analects ofConfucius: a Philosophical Translation, gives priority to transferring the original meaningand cultural idiosyncrasy of Confucian classics faithfully by following the author’s viewpointin its Chinese background. So, the function of STCT is focusing on transmitting the idiosyncrasy of Confucian classics, so as to help the westerners see clearly the differencebetween the east and the west—which is the basic impetus for cultural reference andcommunication. STRT, represented by Ezra Pound’s translations of The Book of Songs andFour Books, and E. Bruce Brooks couple’s The Original Analects: Sayings of Confucius andHis Successors, is of different types but in common, are focusing on the meanings orsignificance of the Confucian classics to the American culture or the present requirements,instead of giving priority to transferring the original meaning and cultural idiosyncrasy ofConfucian classics. So, STRT is always involved in a certain degree of adaptation andutilization of Confucian classics, but is more familiar to the target readers. The importantfunction of STRT is to enlarge the perspective of translation studies, discover various waysfor cultural transmission, so as to meet the different requirements of readers on differentlevels and in different times, thus to accelerate the speed and enlarge the area of culturaltransmission.Chapter Six comes to a conclusion of the dissertation, including the innovative ideas andsome insufficiency of the research; moreover, drawing lessons from the history so as todiscover the best paradigam for the English translation and transmission of Chinese classicsand cultures, in which, the the first choice is STCT, and the STRT is only for somecomplement. Lastly, it is to give some advice for writing a history of the English translation ofChinese classics.